On December 7, 1972, Apollo 17 took the famous photograph entitled The Blue Marble. Discover the history of this photography. It is one of the most reproduced images in the history of mankind. And for good reason, it is the first such clear photograph of the Earth.
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| The Blue Marble (source:wikimedia commons) |
We can recognize the different continents and oceans, the Mediterranean Sea and the southern polar cap of Antarctica. We can also note the Tamil Nadu cyclone in the right-hand corner of the Earth, which killed 80 people in 1972. The entire visible face of the Earth in this photo is visible, which is very rare. In addition, it presents the entire globe.
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| The Apollo 17 lunar module (Source:wikimedia commons) |
The story behind photography
We know that the crew, nearly 5 hours after the takeoff of the Apollo command and service module, took this picture, however, we do not know which of the 3 astronauts is the author (Jack Schmitt would be the origin of the photograph according to some). The famous photograph was actually overturned when it was taken. NASA has taken on the task of turning it in this direction.
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| A Hasselblad camera 70mm (source:wikimedia commons) |
Other pictures of the Earth taken
In 2002, NASA released new composite images. This mosaic required several months of work from a team of scientists who made it a point of honour not to make any "sewing" of this assembly apparent.
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| Pictures taken in 2001 and 2002 (source:Wikipedia) |
Similarly, in 2012, the Suomi NPP satellite took new photographs of the blue planet, with better quality. In 2015, another satellite, Deep Space Climate Observatory, did the same.
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| A picture taken by Suomi NPP (Source:wikimedia commons) |
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